It’s Knight Rider for the NES from 1988. Ah, the 80s. Back when things were so simple and so good, men could have big hair and wear tight acid‑washed jeans in a non‑ironic fashion. Good guys fought bad guys with a talking Trans Am and hooked up with a different babe each episode. Knight Rider was one of the best 80s action TV shows. Does it make for a great Nintendo Entertainment System game? You know, it’s not as bad as it could be.

A few of these 80s shows got turned into NES games, like Airwolf. That one was pretty disappointing. You know, it’s Airwolf. Airwolf was amazing. It’s hard to capture the glory of Airwolf in a video game. Airwolf is a supersonic helicopter piloted by Ernest Borgnine and Jan‑Michael Vincent, and while it loses points for Jan‑Michael Vincent, it gets double points for Ernest Borgnine. Knight Rider is a talking Trans Am piloted by David Hasselhoff from Baywatch. So Airwolf comes out ahead.

Knight Rider on NES plays like a cross between RoadBlasters, Chase HQ, and Rad Racer. It’s a somewhat satisfying but mediocre package that gets repetitive quickly. The music is terrible and never changes between levels. David Hasselhoff versus Ernest Borgnine? Borgnine wins every time. But Knight Rider was still a great 80s TV show. So was The A‑Team. And Magnum P.I.. And Buck Rogers. The 80s were a magical time.

Before we all had Netflix and Amazon and YouTube and could watch anything at any time anywhere, people all seemed to watch the same TV shows. Back in the olden days when TVs only had a couple channels, everybody watched Knight Rider, Dallas, Magnum P.I., The A‑Team, and ALF, which actually did get turned into a video game. What was the best 80s action TV show? I always have to go with Magnum P.I. on this one.

And I don’t believe Magnum P.I. was turned into a video game. That’s a shame because imagine how cool that would be. It would be a side‑scrolling action game where Magnum has to fight crime and solve mysteries, but only after raiding Robin Masters’ wine cellar, making an ass out of Higgins, avoiding the dog, stealing the Ferrari, hanging out with Rick and TC at the bar, and luring Erin Gray back to the estate for a night of intense tropical passion while watching The Fall Guy on Betamax. Erin Gray, who of course was in my other favorite 80s TV show, Buck Rogers.

Anyway, Knight Rider